On the Sidelines

High school football is over in the state of West Virginia. All three state championships were decided in the AAA, AA, and A divisions. In AAA, South Charleston defeated George Washington, 39-8; in AA, Grafton defeated Magnolia, 56-25; and in A, Williamstown defeated Madonna, 23-7.

This is the first state championship for South Charleston Head Coach John Messinger and the school's first since 1994.

"I'd be a fool to tell you that Coach Messinger has done this," Messinger said. "It's first the players, secondly the staff. It's the administration, the communities. That's what makes you champions. Probably anybody could have coached this football team and made them champions."

South Charleston finished the season with a record of 10-0 and was ranked No. 1 in the state. By winning all of their playoff games, they finished their season 14-0, the only undefeated team in West Virginia.

"My philosophy in West Virginia high school football is that you have four or five really good football players on each team and then you surround them with people that play football," Messinger said. "They work hard and are competent and get the job done. We're fortunate to have some real great athletes and some real great skilled athletes here."

Messinger refers to his team as a "second-half team," noting that they usually got into trouble in the first two quarters before pulling out a victory at the end of the game.

"Well, we had a few close calls in the regular season." Messinger said. "We had a few games that probably shouldn't have been as close as they were but when you're playing in the Mountain State Athletic Conference and you're lining up against one of the best teams in the state, week after week after week and you come off a big win, sometimes it's hard to motivate the kids to get ready for the next week."

Messinger credits his conference as being good competition.

"To go 10-0 in the MSAC is quite an accomplishment," Messinger said. "To go 10-0 anywhere in the state of West Virginia is an accomplishment. To finish 14-0 and be the only undefeated team in A, AA, or AAA is something we're really proud of."

South Charleston's run in the playoffs began against Musselman. The final score was 62-21.

"We had a slow start against Musselman," Messinger said. "We came out and right off the bat, we're down by a score. We had to work from behind, which had become the way we did things in the middle of the season. We were able to come back and get after them, especially late in the game. We had a few quick scores that put us up and it was all downhill from there."

South Charleston's second-round game against Martinsburg was a lot closer. The final score was 28-21.

"It was just a game of mistakes, on both sides of the football," Messinger said.

Messinger gives credit to the storied history of Martinsburg, but notes that the game stayed closer than it should have.

"Had we been unfortunate enough to lose that ball game, it would have been a situation where the best team did not win the game," Messinger said.

In the semifinal round, South Charleston defeated Morgantown by the score of 34-18.

"Early, it was a well-contested game," Messinger said. "They were a typical Morgantown football team. They just bust you in the mouth with some good football players and that's just what they did."

Messinger notes that the first half did not go the way they planned, but that they turned it around in the second half.

"We've been behind the 8-ball a few times and never panicked," Messinger said. "Our kids have kind of adopted the philosophy ‘If I can't beat you now, I'll beat you later.'"

The championship game was contested against George Washington. These two teams met in the second week of the regular season, with South Charleston winning by one point. As a result of that game, South Charleston held onto the number one ranking in the state and George Washington finished the season ranked second.

"That championship was two points away from being reversed, G.W. could have easily been number one and we could have just as easily been number two," Messinger said. "If we lost to them we would have easily been number two."

The rivalry was heated between the two teams.

"There were some things that came out of some of the athletes up there that if I was head coach, I wouldn't let the kids be talking that stuff and that motivated our kids," Messinger said. "There was a lot of talk about week two, where it's a one-point game."

Messinger noted that going in he thought it would be a terrific football game, and he says he was not disappointed.

"We knew that G.W. had gotten better, but we felt that we had gotten a lot better," Messinger said.

The final score was 39-8.

"I think we've finally established ourselves as a potential playoff team every year now," Messinger said. "If we can keep ourselves in the position we're in now, we can create a little history here."

While Messinger notes he is taking a short vacation after the victory, he stresses that preparation for next season has already begun, namely weight training.

"We were in the final game, with just a few minutes left," Messinger began. "I called time out and had the kids come over and everybody's looking at me teary eyed and they're a little anxious about getting this over with and taking that championship trophy home. One of them looks over and says, ‘Coach, what are we going to do now?' and I said, ‘I don't know what you're going to do but football is over in about two minutes. Weights start on Monday.'"